SIM CARD WOES

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco
I bought a celfon Smart sim card on a monthly plan which registered well the first month. But on the second and third months, it started to act funny. It always registered as invalid and I could not text or call anymore. Now, the sim goes off and on when I am out of the house. The first time this happened I complained to Smart, the clerk was able to restore the sim to operate well. But now, it is completely kaput. I have gone to a repair technician four to five times already. Each time he would handle it, the sim gets back and then when I go home with it, the sim gets invalid. He gave me pointers earlier how to make it work and that worked for quite sometime. But now that trick won’t do anymore.

My problem is that this technician will be off to Davao on a rendezvous and won’t be back till a month after. I have told him not to fall in love there but do it in November and he replied it is hard not to fall in love.

So I now have a celfone which has an invalid sim. Actually, I bought another sim, Sun, at this guy’s shop just to pay him back for fixing my Smart sim all the time. It registers well – valid but I don’t know if my messages are sent because they do not appear in the outbox at all. But when my friend in Dumaguete responds in Spanish, I know that it had gotten to him.Also, the technician told me I could make unlimited texts and call and when I did call, nothing. I was not able to do it. also the label of the sim said I could have internet but just to get registered, it takes ages. "Service not available. Please register later," it texts back. ,

My other fon with Globe sim is well because my voice calls get through. Sometimes though my friends with Smart sim tell me that they have not received my messages in which case I have to resend them. I know that there is an ongoing battle between Smart and Globe and so I understand the problem of delayed sending of my messages.

Unlike the PLDT service before which had an operator to tell you what number you want to call, and other tasks, there is no operator in the celfone business that can tell you the fon number of any person you want to reach. There is too much privacy. Hence, I have to scrounge for any directory, old or new just to be able to get the proper info.

What makes for a modern country? Communications isn’t it? Our state now is in so much better condition than before when PLDT monopolized the communication industry. I remember then, when I was outside, I would be running to a store and use a public phone there so as to get in touch with a partner. Or, rushing to a phonebooth and finding out I did not have enough coins to call a friend.

So the entry of the celfone into our country is really a welcome development. Each one now can afford to have a fone, and I can see, even construction workers have their own. Or even domestic helpers.

However, what are the things we wish would still happen to improve the celfone business?
1. Lower the fees.
2. If a company does nto deliver the services it says on the poster or on its package label, have a National Telecom hotline which we can call to report it, in case it is difficult to get in touch with the company itself.
3. Stop all selling of whatever on the celfone and ask the owners first if they want to receive them. Time and again, I receive offers to buy this and that; yet no matter if I text them STOP the texting still happens, which can be very irritating if I have no money to buy those items or to test any of their services.

4. If there are celfones which are not original and yet sold in the market, then the government must provide service centers for them to contact the makers or even to provide repair services. Those items came in throough the backdoor which means the government was remiss in its duties of taxing those imported items. Hence, it is the duty of the government to provide repair services for them. Or else, the government should stop their sale in the market altogether. I had a friend with an Alcatel which he dropped in a swimming pool. I helped him look for a repair center but could not find any until he had had to buy a new fone. I bought a Blackberry and had thought it was original, only to find out it was made in China. Now that it is conking out, no Blackberry service center would fix it as they do not have the program for it.

5. Every prepaid sim must have a number that we can call to find out the balance. The labels provide a number but it takes ages before one gets an answer, and sometimes never at all.

6. The Smart sim I bought provided a label with the numbers to call but I was never able to get an answer to my call. One time, I did get an answer and I poured out all my angst over the kind of sim card I get. After that, whenever I would call *888, it texts back, ”unable to connect,” al the time.

7. A card should still be able to accept calls for the company even if it does not have enough load, prepaid or postpaid, which I must say though I don't want to sound like a promo girl of the company, is just like Globe. Or maybe I have gotten used to its services that I also look for them in other companies. I think that any company owes its clients a favor of allowing calls to them, if only to allow them to steam off over their lousy services.

8. The National Telecommunications Commission or NTC should provide street corner stalls where we can report about lousy services of companies which are too desensitized to receive customer complaints or so that we can also complain against hackers like the police intelligence, who are too brazen to do it. Or we can also complain against the kind of music blared over the celfone while the operator makes us wait.

So here I am, still paying my monthly services, cheap, and waiting for that reward free phone to be given me after 6 months, if it should ever be given at all despite this article’s assertions. The smart sim is not working at all now and I am afraid of loading the Sun sim because iI might not be able to text again. Fortunately, my Globe is still working despite my delay in paying the monthly fees.

Thank God for alternatives in this country.